The Simple Life at Home

• My mom is coming to visit next week. She and I are best friends and we always have a lot of fun together. Plus my kids are bouncing off the wall to see her.
• Hurricane (or soon-to-be anyway) Dean is not coming here, according to the latest forecasts.
• My box of books from Sonlight arrived today. As I mentioned in this post, that's one of the best days of the year around here. I've spent the whole evening perusing through different books and can't wait to get started on our next homeschooling adventure - World History!
• We finally (after 3 months!) rented out our rental home. It even worked out perfectly with the tenant signing a 9-month lease. Unusual, but that leaves us free to put it up for sale in 9 months, 12 months after buying it - exactly when we would meet the criteria for not having to pay a ridiculous amount of taxes on it.
• My father-in-law apparently suffered either, a) a heart attack, or b) a serious bout of pneumonia and is now home recuperating. We don't know which because my husband's family is notorious for not keeping us informed (they don't want us to worry) and we've heard two different versions. But I'm thankful that whatever it was, he survived it and is on the mend.
• The situation with our small group is resolved. No one is willing to take up the leadership reins, so it will come to an end, but at least I don't have to deal with the stress it was creating in my spirit. I'm also thankful that the responses to my half-written email were generally kind and supportive.
• My experiment in letting the kids be more independent in their school work seems to be paying off. Emily has shown quite a bit of initiative to get her work done promptly. Daniel is still not there, but his attitude has improved greatly from last week.
• Finally, High School Musical 2 airs tomorrow night. I'm not thankful for this because I want to see it myself. But wow I can stop hearing about how Emily "can't wait for it to start!!!" You must imagine that quote in a screeching, high-pitched 12-year-old-girl-who-is-about-to-swoon-voice.
• God opened a door for me to spend time with and help my neighbor today. Now, this isn't the really annoying one, but it is the one that I see most frequently (since her son practically lives here) and I have felt led to start being more of a friend and a light to her. Nothing big happened, just a neighborly favor, but it gave us a chance to really talk like we never have before.
• Our new senior pastor begins his ministry at our church this Sunday!!! We have been without a senior pastor for over 18 months now. While we do have other pastors on staff, it's kind of like everything has been in a holding pattern. I'm hopeful that this will be a new start for our church and that some of the people who have left will come back.

So there you have it. Lots of wonderful things that God is doing in my life. None of them huge, but to me, they are signs of His grace. His lovingkindness endures forever! Amen!

Be sure to visit Iris at Sting My Heart to find lots more stories of God's faithfulness and our thankfulness!